Confronting the backdrop of a national survey showing half of teachers experiencing "great stress" on the job, the caput of California's teacher credentialing committee says that stress levels among the land's teachers are likely to exist even higher.

Linda Darling-Hammond during a recent meeting of the Commission on Teacher Credentialing

Linda Darling-Hammond during a contempo coming together of the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

"I would think California would be at the forefront of this group (of stressed-out teachers) and teachers' stress levels here even higher," said Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of Education at Stanford University's School of Pedagogy and chair of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. "California'due south teachers are undoubtedly stressed and very concerned nearly the level of back up for children and schools and teachers in this society."

The 29th annualMetLife Survey of the American Teacher, the nigh administrative gauge of instructor attitudes, was released this week. The MetLife report is based on the survey responses of ane,000 teachers beyond the nation, reached by phone in October and Nov 2012. It indicates that instructor satisfaction is at its lowest level in 25 years. Teacher satisfaction peaked in 2008, just before the Great Recession, with 62 percent reporting they were very satisfied. But that number has been dropping ever since, to just 39 percentage this year.

The written report noted that upkeep decreases were associated with lower morale and greater stress among teachers. Some 51 per centum of teachers feel under "great stress" at least several days a week. Stress levels are greatest for elementary school teachers, with 59 percent reporting "great stress" compared with 35 percent in the 1985 survey. Teachers who work with low-income students and who are in schools that have to cope with upkeep cutbacks experience fifty-fifty more than stress.

California teachers take had to endure five years of sustained upkeep cuts, which they've experienced in numerous forms: massive layoffs, unpaid furlough days, freezes on cost-of-living increases, and the trimming or elimination of support programs, professional development and class training fourth dimension. At least 30,000 teachers have lost their jobs in California over the past v years – some 10 percent of the teaching force. Merely every bit EdSource's "Schools Nether Stress" study noted,

But the threat of layoffs can demoralize staff, with a rippling effect in classrooms and throughout a commune, potentially affecting educatee academic outcomes. Thus, fifty-fifty when teachers are rehired, the issuing of layoff notices can inflict pregnant damage on the culture of a school.

During the same fourth dimension catamenia, teachers have collectively been the target of relentless criticism, including from the Obama assistants, that they are a major cause – and in some cases, the major cause – of low student achievement. That, Darling-Hammond said, has likewise contributed to plummeting satisfaction levels.

"The huge dive in teacher satisfaction has to be correlated with the instructor bashing that'southward been going on for the past four years – beginning at the White House," said Darling-Hammond. "Teachers are dealing with racial issues, poverty, violence, homelessness. Then they are subjected to a continual refrain that 'teachers are the trouble, let'due south get rid of the bad teachers' without acknowledging society's function in taking intendance of kids."

Ellen Moir, executive manager of the national New Teacher Centre, which works with new teachers to help them go more than constructive, is worried that the low satisfaction rates and loftier levels of stress reported by teachers could have a dampening impact on alluring – and retaining – new teachers. The MetLife survey, she said, "is particularly worrying given there is a need to recruit 2 million new teachers into the profession over the next ten years. Information technology highlights how important it is to make sure every new teacher gets the back up he or she needs to improve student learning and to remain committed to instruction."

Dean Vogel, president of the California Teachers Association (CTA), said the survey results are not surprising considering the combination of budget cutbacks and the disability of teachers to control what they teach in the classroom.

Teachers want to "instill a love of learning" rather than preparing students for tests, he said. "Teachers are non supported in doing what they know is essential and right in maintaining and sustaining positive learning environments for kids. Teachers believe what they are existence forced to exercise is counterproductive, and they feel complicit in information technology."

Vogel said elementary schoolhouse teachers feel higher levels of stress considering high school teachers, who by and large written report to a department chair, experience more than in control of their classroom. Besides having to teach all the subjects, elementary school teachers are much more responsible for the psychological well-existence of their students, he said.

Despite dipping satisfaction levels, teachers announced to be embracing the Common Cadre state standards. More than ii-thirds of the teachers surveyed (69 percent) reported feeling "confident" or "very confident" in the new standards, and 71 percentage agreed that the new standards volition better set up students for college and the workforce than their state's prior standards. And 93 pct felt that their colleagues had the ability to teach to the new standards.

Martha Infante is a history teacher at LA Academy Middle School in South Central Los Angeles and a member of the Educator Excellence Task Force appointed by Superintendent of Public Instuction Tom Torlakson. She said teachers are always willing to implement new approaches like the Common Cadre standards. Merely she said the many unknowns teachers confront, including the imminent introduction of the Mutual Core, contributes to the stresses they experience. "We don't know what's coming adjacent," she said. "We don't know where the profession is headed."

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